Veteran Stephen Mokoka, a three-time Cape Town Marathon winner and former South African marathon record-holder, will lead the local charge at Sunday's race.
Image: BackpagePix
The noise surrounding this year’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is impossible to ignore. The arrival of marathon great Eliud Kipchoge has elevated excitement around the race to unprecedented levels, with South African road running fans eagerly anticipating the sight of the two-time Olympic champion on local soil.
But while much of the media attention remains firmly focused on the Kenyan icon, there is another storyline unfolding quietly in the background — one centred on a man who already owns a special piece of Cape Town Marathon history.
Stephen Mokoka is simply not interested in getting swept up in the external hype. The three-time Cape Town Marathon champion has one singular goal in mind: reclaiming his crown and becoming a four-time winner of the prestigious race. For Mokoka, this assignment is entirely about purpose, tactical execution, and personal ambition rather than external distractions.
“I take it like the world championships, I take it as the Olympics,” Mokoka said this week following an intense training session at Tuks. “There’s always noise, there’s always vibes. But you must stay in your own lane, focus on yourself, and focus heavily on your goal.”
Wheelchair athletes Eden Dawes of Australia, Manuela Schär of Switzerland, Jetze Plat of the Netherlands and David Weir of Great Britain pictured during the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon elite athlete media briefing in Cape Town ahead of Sunday’s race.
Image: Henk Kruger / Independent Media
That clinical approach has defined Mokoka’s elite career for nearly two decades. Whether competing at the Olympic Games, World Championships, or big-city marathons, the veteran has built his enduring success on fierce discipline and an unwavering focus on his own performance. This time around is no different.
While the presence of Kipchoge has generated global sports headlines, the local star — who will be running in the famous purple and yellow colours of the Hollywood Athletics Club — has his attention firmly fixed on his target of executing a sub-2:10 race on Cape Town’s challenging course.
“The aim this time around is just to get under 2:10, to bring the motivation back,” he explained. “Then probably look forward to securing a competitive race abroad later in the year.”
The sub-2:10 ambition is about far more than just a quick time on the stopwatch. It represents a critical stepping stone in Mokoka’s ultimate dream — qualifying for what he hopes will be a historic fifth Olympic Games selection. At 40 years old, many athletes would already be settling into comfortable retirement or transitioning fully into the ultra-distance community. Mokoka has experimented in that space too, including competitive appearances in ultras, but the raw purity of the marathon still calls to him.
“My aim is to try and qualify for my final Olympics,” he noted. “I just want to get five Olympics against my name and be the unique one in the country.”
That unfinished Olympic ambition remains one of the primary reasons he remains so aggressively driven despite an already highly decorated career. Yet Mokoka insists he is not chasing a personal legacy in Cape Town as much as he is hunting absolute redemption.
Back in 2023, he narrowly missed out on victory — losing a brutal sprint finish against Ethiopian Adane Kebede Gebre by a mere six seconds. That painful memory still lingers.
“My ultimate goal is actually to win Cape Town,” he admitted. “The last time I ran there, I finished second — I lost in the final stage of the race. To rectify that mistake would be amazing for me.”
Victory this year would secure a historic fourth Cape Town Marathon crown and further cement his place as the race’s greatest-ever participant. And while many pundits are predicting an incredibly fast race because of the sheer calibre of international athletes involved, Mokoka believes Cape Town’s demanding route and unpredictable coastal weather could create highly tactical racing conditions.
“It’s a tough route,” he said. “People want to run fast and we’ll be there to be part of that pack. But we just hope for good weather on the day.”
He firmly believes that smart pacing and macro race management will ultimately determine the outcome of the event.
“Some people will go too fast in the beginning and pay a heavy price for it later,” he explained. “If it’s windy or hot, you need to actively save energy and hydrate properly.”
Under the right conditions, Mokoka believes a sub-2:10 performance could even be more than enough to win the entire race. Despite his laser focus, the South African star freely admits that racing against Kipchoge on home soil remains incredibly special.
“Everyone wants to have a guy like Eliud because he’s a global superstar,” Mokoka said. “He has medals from the track, cross-country, and road running. He’s won the Olympics twice, world championships, and he’s the first man to break two hours.”
For South African athletics, Mokoka believes Kipchoge’s historic participation could inspire a new generation of youth runners and elevate the profile of the sport locally.
“It creates genuine excitement,” he said. “Hopefully everyone and the other athletes — we can give South Africans something beautiful to watch.”
But profound admiration does not translate to intimidation. Mokoka has shared major championship fields with Kipchoge before, including at the Olympic Games, and he understands better than most what it takes psychologically to compete on the grandest stages.
For him, the challenge is never about names, brands, or reputations. It is entirely about executing his own race. And if he succeeds, the loudest story coming out of the Western Cape might not be about the sport’s biggest global superstar — it could instead belong to the local marathon king determined to reclaim his throne.